Red Bull Racing ‘design guru’ Adrian Newey acknowledges that the current Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly’s car is not yet as good as he would like it to be, and there’s a lot of catching up to do with the chassis.

So far, chassis design has been one of Red Bull Racing’s great strengths, or so they’d like you to believe, and this has a lot to do with designer Adrian Newey. Over the past few years, the team have often pointed the finger at engine partner Renault as their weak link, ironic now that for 2019 it’s not their engine partner but themselves that are to blame.

This year the RB15, with which Max Verstappen and his new team-mate Pierre Gasly will compete in the World Championship, has been described as an utter headache for the engineers in Milton Keynes.

Team boss Christian Horner described the 2019 racer as “tricky” at the last race in Bahrain, and also complained about the narrow working window in which the RB15 functions optimally. Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko also alluded to the downforce problems of Newey’s latest design.

The engineer himself admits in the Sky Sport F1 interview:

“If I am completely honest, then I have to admit that on the chassis side we are not as far as we would like to be. We just have to keep going and make our contribution.”

The Brit also took the opportunity to praise the new Red Bull Racing engine partner Honda.

“We have a good working relationship and trust each other. Everyone makes their contribution without having to fight a mud battle.

“Of course, culturally there are clear differences, but I think as long as you respect and understand that, it’s not a problem at all,” enthuses Newey.

And the 60-year-old stresses: “Honda has really brought a breath of fresh air that motivates the whole team. They always deliver what they promise. There’s no reason to complain at all. Sure, they’re not at eye level with Mercedes and Ferrari yet. But I’m very confident that they will soon achieve that.”

The next race in China is happening this weekend, starting on Friday free-practice. One of the easiest ways of watching is to use the new F1 TV pro (learn more).

Sunday 14th April 2019

Red Bull chief admits Newey’s got this one wrong

4th April 2019

The shocking new reality for Red Bull and their ‘youngest ever World Champion’ (in waiting), is that Adrian Newey has produced what is termed in the UK colloquial terms – a duffer.

Yes, Max Verstappen is busy collecting points, 27 points to be precise, which is more than the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. However, victories are still out of reach for the Dutchman at the moment and his teammate Pierre Gasly certainly looks lost at sea.

“We didn’t deserve third place. We lacked the speed.” admits Verstappen after the Bahrain GP, “Nevertheless, we scored good points and made the most of it.”

His new team-mate Pierre Gasly must be happy if he scores any points at all.

“Pierre had a solid race and some good overtaking manoeuvres. That should give him self-confidence,” spins team boss Christian Horner.

Verstappen’s story in the race sounded like a copy of his story during Friday practice. “I never really had grip. It was tyre management from start to finish. Whether the wind made it more difficult, I can’t say.

“In any case, it didn’t help. Both tyres were problematic for me. We chose the wrong setup before qualifying. We had to drag that along in the race.” concluded Verstappen.

In Australia it took 180 minutes during free practice until the engineers had adjusted the car to the extent they felt they had the best setup. An extraordinary amount of time.

It appears for Bahrain, a similar issue occurred for Red Bull – “It’s difficult to hit the window perfectly,” Verstappen admits.

Laughable is the rhetoric from Helmut Marko in Australia, obviously still nursing ‘a semi’ from Verstappen’s podium for Honda, their first since Barachello’s in 2008.

I quote: “With our car, he will be able to fight for the title. Absolutely.” and “if we talk about pace, then we were on equal terms with Hamilton.”

And now we’re hearing from the same man that “The trend was already there in Australia, but not as blatant as in Bahrain,

“We didn’t get the soft tyres to work. The car slides at the front, it slides at the rear. On the medium tyre, our car was transformed.”

And when asked, it seems that Marko blames the aerodynamics.

“Newey was deeply immersed in himself. That means he recognised the problem,”

And when asked if he thinks their aero guru Adrian Newey can find a fix, the rather resigned statement of “I hope.” is the best he can give.

Horner summed it up during the Bahrain test after the race – “With this [aero] problem, it is difficult to keep up the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes.

“When the safety car went onto the track three laps before the end of the race, the winner Lewis Hamilton was 30 seconds behind. Charles Leclerc without an engine problem would have finished 40 seconds ahead”

The statements of these senior team members point to an unstable downforce inherent in the car, and rarely this happens at Red Bull.

The cars are usually known to work in a large setup operating window. So Newey and his team have a hard task ahead of them. At the moment the Haas are just as fast in the corners and could become dangerous on certain stretches with their superior Ferrari power unit.